Beyond All Measure (Feb. 28, 2026)
There is a moment near the end of Mark 7 where the crowd’s response pushes the Greek language to its limit. When Jesus heals a deaf man in the Decapolis, Mark tells us the witnesses were ὑπερπερισσῶς ἐξεπλήσσοντο (hyperperissōs exeplēssonto) — “astonished beyond all measure” (Mark 7:37). The word ὑπερπερισσῶς is a genuine hapax legomenon, which means that it appears nowhere else in all of known Greek literature. Mark takes an ordinary word for “exceedingly” and stacks the preposition ὑπέρ (hyper), meaning “above” or “beyond,” onto the front of it, as if ordinary amazement is simply insufficient for what they have just witnessed. Mark reaches for a word that does not quite exist.
What the witnesses saw was this: Jesus privately took aside a deaf man with a speech impediment, touched his ears, spat, touched the man’s tongue, looked up to heaven, and sighed deeply. Then he said a single Aramaic word — ephphatha (transliterated as ἐφφαθά), “Be opened” — and the man’s ears were unstopped, and his tongue was loosed (Mark 7:31–35). The crowd’s reaction follows.
And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak” (Mark 7:37).
That final line is not merely an expression of surprise. It is a confession, and Mark intends his readers to hear its Old Testament register. The prophet Isaiah, describing the return of YHWH to Zion with his people, wrote:
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. (Isa 35:5–6)
Isaiah’s vision was of a new exodus — God returning to redeem and restore his people, healing what their idolatry and exile had broken. When the crowd echoes Isaiah’s language in the Decapolis, Mark is signaling that the moment the prophets anticipated has arrived. Jesus is not performing miracles for their own sake. Each healing is a signpost to a larger reality: YHWH has returned to his people in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and the new exodus has begun.
This is why the crowd cannot stay silent. Jesus commands them to say nothing (Mark 7:36), but the more he charges them, the more zealously they proclaim it. Ordinary words are insufficient. Ordinary composure is impossible. Mark invents a new word because nothing else will fit the moment.
The same Gospel that opened deaf ears in Galilee is still being proclaimed today. May it still astonish us beyond all measure.